This invention relates to a method of folding foil or other similar wrapping material around cigarette bundles, and particularly to a method where the exposed foil on the top of a cigarette bundle is flat with no apparent folds.
Cigarettes are typically sold in packs which consist of a bundle of cigarettes wrapped in foil, overwrapped with paper which usually has brand and other information printed on its outer side, and again overwrapped with a sealed polypropylene layer. Two types of packs are in general use. The first type is a soft pack as described above. The second type is a box which is a hard paperboard box having a hinged lid at the top. When either type of pack is opened in order to remove a cigarette, the foil on top of the cigarette bundle is revealed. The configuration of the foil generally has an appearance similar to that of a gift package or envelope. More specifically, the sides of the foil are folded inwardly before the top and bottom folds are made, resulting in the gift package appearance.
When an hinged top box of flattened oval cross section is provided, the foil on the top of the cigarette bundle is better suited to a configuration having no apparent folds rather than the gift package type configuration. This is due to the arrangement of the cigarettes within the box. In a box of flattened oval cross section, it is not desirable to arrange the cigarettes into even-numbered columns. This will leave a void at each side of the box and will cause damage to the cigarettes due to shifting inside the box. Rather, it is necessary to nest one cigarette between the rows at each of the outermost, or "outboard" positions. This configuration best fits the flattened oval shape. However, it may also lead to excessive pressure on the outboard cigarettes from the foil folded around the end of cigarette bundle. Due to the resultant pressure, the outboard cigarettes frequently suffer an undesirable mutilation in their cross sectional areas.